The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1887-10-27

VI Hdu purchased All MS WORKS, Ht tnat
time expensive beyond IN easy capacity to
own them, aud what a heaven L went
through In reaC!;ag nis "Seven lamps of
Architecture" and his "Stones of Venice, "
it is impossible for me to describe except
by saying that it gave me rupture for
good books, and an everlast no disgust for
decrepit or immora books that will last me
while my immortal sonl lasts. All around
the church and the world to-day there are
busy hives of intelligence occupied hy au-
thOrs and authoresses from whose pens
drip distillation which is the very nectar
of heaven, and why will yOu thrust your
rod of quistiyeness into the deathful
saccharine of perdtion?
Stimulating Iiquids also come into the
category of temptations delicious but
deathful. You say: 81 cannot bear the
taste of intoxicating liquors, and how any
man can like it is to me an amaZement." +"
Well, then, it is no credit 10 you that you
do not take it. Do not brag about your
total abstinence, because 1t is not rom
any principle that you reject alcoholism,
but for the same reason that You re ject
certain kinds of food-you simply don't
like the taste of them. But multitudes Of
people have natural fondness for all
kinds of intoxicnuts. They like it so
much that it makes them smack their lips
to look 1T it. They are dyspeptic and they
take it TO aid digestion, or they are annoyed
by insomnia and they take it to produce
sleep, or they are tloubled and they take
it to make them 0bliYious, or they feel
good and they must CO ebrate their hilality.
They begin with Iliut julep sucked through
two straws on the Long Branch piazza and
end in the ditch, taking from Jug a liquid
halt kerosene and half whisky. They not
only like it, but il is an ll-consuming
passion of body, mind, and soul, and after
while have it they will, though one wine
glass of it Should cost the temporal and
eternal destruction of themselves and all
their families, and the whole human race.
They would say: "I am sorry it is going
to cost me and my family and all the
worlds population so very much, but here
it goes TO my lips, and now let it roll over
my parched tongue and down my heated
throat, the sweetest, the most inspiring,
the most rapturous thing that ever thrilled
mortal or immortal" To cure the habit
before it comes to its last stages, various
plans were tried in olden times. This plan
was recommended in the books: When a
man wanted TO reform he put shot or bull
lets into the cup or glass of strong
drink-one additional shot each day-that
displaced SO much liquor. Bullet after
bullet added day by day, of course, the
liquor became less and less until the bull
lets would entirely Ell up the glass and
there was no room for the liquid, and by
that time it was said the inebriate would
be cured. Whether any one ever was cured
in that way know not, but by long expert
ment it is found that the only way is to
stop short off, and when a man does that
he needs God to help him. And there
have been more cases than you can count
Wnen GOD has so helped the man that he
quit forever, and could count q score of
them here to-day. some of them pillars in
the house of God.
One would suppose that men would take
warning from some of the ominous names
given to the intoxicants and stand off from
the devastating influence. You have
noticed, Tor instance, that some of the
restaurants are called "The Shades"
typical of the fact that it puts mans
reputation in the shade and his morals in
the shade and his prosperity in the shade
and his wife and children in the shade and
his Immortal destiny in the shade.
Now, find on some of the liquor signs
in all our cities the words "Old Crow"
nightly suggestive of carcass and the
filthy raven that swoops down upon it.
numbers slain of rum but unburied, and
this evil is recling at their glazed eyes
and pecking at their bloated check, and
pecking at their destroyed manhood and
womanhood, thrusling beak and claw into
the mortal remains of what was once
gloriously alive but now morally dead.
"Old Crowl" But alas, how many take no
warning They make me think OF Caesar
on his way to assassination fearing moth
ing; though his statue in the hall crashed
into fragments at his feet, and n scroll
containing the names oil the conspirators
was thrust into his hands, yet walking
right on to meet the dagger that was to
take his life. This infatnation of strong
drink is so mighty in many man that
though his fortunes are crashing, and his
hea tn is crashing, and his domestic inter-
ests nre crashing, and we hand him long
scroll containing the names of perils that
await him, be goes straight on to physical,
and mental, and moral assassination. In
proportion as any style Of alcoholism is
pleasant to your taste, and stimulating TO
your nerves, and for time delightful to
all Your physical and mental constitution,
is the peril awful. Remember Jonathan
and the forbidden honey in the woods of
Beth-aven.
must be put in the list of temptations de-
licious but destructive. | have crossed
the ocean eight times, and always one of
the best rooms has, from morning till late
at night, been given up 10 gambling proc-
tees. l heard of many men who went on
board with enough money for European
excursion who landed without enough
money TO get their baggage up to the hotel
or railroad station. To many there is
complete fascination in games of hazard
or the risking Of money on possibilities.
1t seems as natural for them TO bet as 10
eat. Indeed, the hunger for food is often
overpowered with the hunger for wagers,
as in the case of Lord Sandwich, per-
sistent gambler, who not being willing to
leave the dice table long enough for the
taking of food, invented o preparation Of
food that he could take without stopping
the game; namely, n slice Of beef between
two slices of bread, which was named
after Lord Sandwich. 1t is absurd for
those of us who have never felt the fas-
cination of the wager TO speak sightingly
of the temptation. 1t has slain Il multi
tude of intellectual and moral giants, men
and women stronger than you or /. Down
under its power went glorious Oliver Gold /
smith, and Gibbou, tho historian, and
Ni''l !GS Il oA3 lllt b'U'tFluuUS unN Ia O4uen 3
times famous Senators Of the United
States, who used to be as regularly at tho
gambling house all night rs they were in
the halls Of Legislation by d3y. on, tho !
tragedies OF the faro tablet ] know per- /
sous who beoan with slight stake in u
lady's palOr, and enCed with sui ides |
pistol at Monte Carlo. They PLAYED with |
the square pieces Of bono with black |
mnrl,e on them pnt LnOvinu tbot Cotou
was playing for their bones Mt the same
time and was sure to sweep ali the stakes
Off on his side of the table. The last
New York Legislature sanctioned tho
mighty evil Inst spring by passing a law
for its defense at the race tracks, and
many young men in these cities lost all
ihnil NJ n crnr NJ Hnrnr lrlnnl ihfa er,rn,,n,. !